Police: Louisiana Teen Charged with Raping 9-Year-Old Family Member

A 18-year-old teen from Houma, Louisiana, has been charged with raping a nine-year-old member of his extended family, police report.

Angel Gonzales, of Houma, was arrested and charged late last week after the child alleged that the teen had been sexually molesting her for “quite some time.”

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After an investigation, police in the small town about an hour southwest of New Orleans found that the alleged abuse had been ongoing for up to three years, starting when the child was only a six-year-old.

Police arrested Gonzales without incident at his home on Cenac Street, reports say.

Gonzales was taken to the Terrebonne Parish jail and booked on a first-degree rape charge.

Despite this shocking arrest, the crime rate in the Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, corridor has been falling over the last few years. According to a recent review of crime rates, crime has fallen 37 percent in a part of the Pelican State once beset by high crime. The falling crime stats are seen despite the relative low income and low education rates in the area. One indicator that may help explain the drop, though, is the low unemployment rate. At a low 4.8 percent, Houma has some of the lowest unemployment in the state.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.